A whirling world of sound unfurls on this first KRAAK show of the spring, in joyous collaboration with the AB Clubmates. Entrancing cyclical music from many orbits is our way of welcoming a new season, featuring Irish guitar expansions two ways, French trad desintegrations, Eastern renewals of Western classicisms and a new heir of US ragtime traditions ~ five acts and one new album to rejoice with as the longer days draw us in. 

Liam Grant

Only 23 years young and already walking in the footsteps of giants, Liam Grant takes the blueprints of the Takoma catalog and runs them through a contemporary lens that’s very much his own. Like our beloved Venediktos Tempelboom here in the lowlands, Liam brings fresh perspectives and a punk mindset to the primitive canon, taking meandering rags and expansive modal sagas in unexpected directions. With collaborations with Mike Gangloff under his belt, this budding talent is already off on a noteworthy journey, one that will only be augmented by his wiles and imagination if his Bandcamp bio is any indication!

https://liamgrant.bandcamp.com/

Acetylène

French multi-instrumentalist Lise Barkas uses bagpipes and hurdy gurdys (including a hand-me-down from none other than Yann Gourdon) to draw out time and space with intrinsic drones. Brussels-based artist and “media saboteur” Yann Leguay has been deconstructing sound and its sources through dissecting and recomposing hardware, transforming turntables, hard drives, angle grinders and other unsuspecting appliances into instruments. Forces joined, a hypnotic trance slowly unfolds, harkening to ancient motifs where uncanny hums and oscillating vibrations meet the decay of dusty rhythms and disintegrating electronics, creating serpentine harmonies for the undiscovered primordial self.

https://acetylene.bandcamp.com/album/actyln

Aonghus McEvoy

Dublin native Aonghus McEvoy delves into the improvisational as much as the compositional, finding fluency in solo outings as well as through collaborations with artists such as Jon Collin, Damo Suzuki, Rhodri Davies, Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh (<3) and Natalia Beylis and Willie Stewart as Woven Skull. Focusing mainly on the guitar and its language as standard folk music, McEvoy’s attempts to, in his words, make the guitar not sound like a guitar and explore the outer of reaches of its sonic possibilities, result in narcotic jams that toe the line between artful moderation and adventurous exuberance, invariably winding their way into strange and mesmerizing new places.

https://astralmcevoy.bandcamp.com/album/under-cracked

Aya Suzuki

Multi-instrumentalist Aya Suzuki is, in no uncertain terms, a compelling musician who skillfully infuses classical training with pure artistic vision. With this show, we celebrate her debut release on KRAAK, Winged Seeds, which was recorded during her 2023 residency at STUK and is a testament to her virtuosity. Clay pots, vibraphone, aluphone, different bowls and, of all things, rice, are her tools for conjuring arrestingly vibrant atmospheres. Her prodigious command of percussive techniques goes hand in hand with her gift for poetic improvisation, as sound and silence have an equal and deliberate weight that charge each moment, suspending time and place into a magical stasis.

http://www.aya-suzuki.com/

Cian Nugent

The other Dublin native of the night has traveled these lands and beyond for well over a decade: guitarist Cian Nugent has been accompanying artists like Ryley Walker, Angel Olsen and Steve Gunn as part of their touring bands, while also deepening a unique style that combines folk, blues and psychedelia into a cultish singer-songwriter revivalist trip. His expressive musicality recalls that of the legendary Jansches and Reinbourns, paying due reverence to traditional forms of songwriting while imbuing the craft with a personal touch of art rock grooviness and experimental improvisation that is alluring for the ear and expansive for the mind.

https://ciannugent.bandcamp.com/